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COGNITIVE AND NON-COGNITIVE FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AMONG NURSING ALUMNI IN TWO NIGERIAN NURSING SCHOOLS FROM 2010 TO 2020

Josephine N. AMADI*, Regidor III DIOSO, Anne Chidinma NWOGU, Christiana I. ELUSOJI, Idris Adewale AHMED, Ifeyinwa Stephina AGU, Clementina EZE, MUNGE F. Mary

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Abstract

This study aimed to examine the predictors of the academic performance of nursing Alumni from two Nigerian nursing schools between 2010 and 2020. We employed a quantitative retrospective design to examine the academic records of nursing Alumni at Ebonyi State School of Nursing Afikpo and Abia State School of Nursing Umuahia, located in southeast Nigeria. The research team used a sample size of 318 (159 from each school) selected through a systematic sampling technique from a pool of 1,540 Alumni records. Data were collected between June and August 2021 using a novel structured data extraction checklist. This study applied descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze the data at a significance level of 5%. The Alumni in the two examined schools exhibited significant differences in age (p = <0.001) and gender (p = 0.009). The Alumni with higher grades in Biology (p = 0.005), those who had given birth before (p = 0.014), and whose mothers held a non-biomedical job (p = 0.014) were more likely to achieve Credits in the Licensure examination in Abia. In Ebonyi, there was a significant association between pre-admission test scores and Licensure examination grade (p = 0.001). The findings of this study suggest that cognitive and non-cognitive variables significantly influence academic performance, and further studies are needed to confirm these results.

Keywords: Academic performance; Cognition; Nigeria; Nursing; Retrospective studies; Schools; School admission criteria.